Tina Rasor

Tina Rasor serves as the primary contracting lead for the U.S. Air Force’s Air Force Research Laboratory under the AFMC PZL RYKS organization, where she manages high-priority research and development acquisitions critical to national defense innovation. She plays a central role in advancing the agency’s mission to accelerate next-generation capabilities in autonomous sensing, target recognition, sensor exploitation, and microelectronics by overseeing the full lifecycle of R&D contracts—from solicitation through award and performance oversight. Her portfolio is exclusively focused on scientific and engineering R&D, ensuring that cutting-edge technologies are rapidly transitioned from lab to operational use in air and space domains. Rasor maintains consistent, long-term partnerships with leading defense technology contractors, including Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, Raytheon Company, and Matrix Research Inc. These relationships are characterized by deep technical collaboration on complex, multidisciplinary projects requiring advanced expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and sensor systems integration. Her procurement approach emphasizes technical excellence and mission alignment, often involving multiple-phase contracts that support iterative prototyping, field testing, and capability maturation. Rasor’s contracting activity shows no use of socioeconomic set-asides, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition. This reflects a strategic emphasis on accessing the broadest pool of technical capability rather than prioritizing socioeconomic categories, aligning with the high-complexity, mission-critical nature of AFRL’s R&D objectives. Her procurement focus is singularly concentrated on NAICS 541715—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—where she procures advanced systems for autonomous decision-making, real-time data exploitation, and next-generation microelectronics. Her domain expertise spans signal processing, embedded AI architectures, and sensor fusion technologies, making her a key enabler of the Air Force’s technological superiority in contested environments.